Festival of MiCeri
by Agas Spenjahgra VII
Summary: Mel's hates the Festival of Ceri for the following reasons: Flowers everywhere, lots of pink things, and couples slobbering over each other. Could her day get any worse?


A/N: Written for the "All You Need is Love" fanfiction challenge over at the Amaranthia site. I didn't plan on doing this, but... plot bunnies attacketh and now I have plenty of spare plots to dish out. So, in case you innocent bystanders have no idea of my crack-shipping infamy, let me warn you that there are major creepiness ahead.

* * *

"You don't know what the Festival of Ceri is?" Arana asked, an exaggerated look of suprise on her face, "You really _are_ dull."

Mel rolled her eyes and stomped away from the snobby girl and her giggling friends. No, she doesn't know what the Festival of Cherries or whatever the heck the day was called is, and, after seeing how everything seem to be covered in flowers and pink things that day, she probably wouldn't want to know anyway.

Later that day, her classmate Emma kindly told her that the Festival of Ceri celebrates love and romance, but by then she has seen so many couples being all over each other (some were openly kissing in public view, much to her disgust) that she sort of already picked up the general idea of what the holiday is about.

"Ugh, whose stupid idea was it to make a holiday about romance anyway?" she grumbled, slamming her bedroom door shut.

Mel felt weird about returning to her room so early in the afternoon, but the obnoxious decorations and couples were practically _everywhere_. Her room was the only place she could be safe from the disgusting display.

Suddenly a glowing figure slowly faded into view in front of her. At first she thought it was Nox and wondered with a scowl what the creepy girl was up to this time. It took her a second to realize that the glow was yellow instead of blue and that the figure was too tall to be Nox.

She immediately reached for her staff, eyeing the mysterious glowing figure warily. She was glad she did so the moment she recognized the intruder.

Gyendal.

What. The. Heck.

He was supposed to be sealed in the Demon Realm. How the heck did he escape? And more importantly, why the heck was he _glowing yellow_?

He grinned at her. "Hello Mel, did you miss me?"

She glared at the , she could _show_ him how much she missed him. She raised her staff. A direct hit with Fury should get the message across clear enough. She might get in trouble for it later, but it would be so, _so_ worth it…

Gyendal chuckled. "Don't bother, it won't work."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You're welcome to try, although I doubt you would want your professors to punish you for destroying your room – or the entire dormitory, for that matter."

Mel narrowed her eyes. She didn't want to believe him, but he did have a point. It would be a huge waste of mana if the Fury really didn't work on him, not to mention that the punishment she was sure to receive would have been for nothing.

Determined to prove him wrong, she shot a minor storm spell at him. Much to her dismay, he was right. The spell did absolutely nothing to him. That is, other than the split-second moment where she thought she saw his form flicker slightly when the spell hit him, but it might have just been a trick of the light.

"I told you it wouldn't work," Gyendal said, smirking.

He took a step towards her and she instinctively backed away.

"What do you want?" Mel hissed. Where was Yemite when she needed her?

She held her staff in both hands, preparing to use it as a club if needed.

"Relax, I'm not here to kidnap you," he said casually.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I thought I'd pay you a visit, since today is the Festival of Ceri and all."

"What does this stupid festival have to do with– " Mel froze mid-sentence. Her eyes widened as she slowly began to make the connection. He wouldn't...

Gyendal smirked wider.

"Don't be so cold," he said, "To think that wou were throwing yourself at me just last year…"

She gaped at him. He had the _gall_ to bring up Spook.

"Why you – "

She charged at him then, swinging her staff as hard as she could.

He caught the staff before it made contact with his skull.

"Sorry Mel, I'm not in mood for pain right now," Gyendal murmured. "Maybe next time..."

He pulled a vial of liquid from seemingly out of nowhere and, before she could demand any explanation from him, splashed its contents on her face.

Mel stumbled backwards, coughing and spluttering, and landed rather painfully on har backside. She wiped the liquid off her face, spitting out what little of it that had gotten into her mouth. The liquid tasted both sweet and bitter, and it had this distinct smell that she thought she recognized though she couldn't put a finger on where she remembered it from. She did notice that she was feeling oddly calm and relaxed – dazed even. She knew she should be exploding with rage right now, but she was too light-headed to figure out why.

A clow chuckle from somewhere above her reminded her that she was not alone in the room. The next thing she knew, Gyendal's face appeared right in front of her.

Her accelerating heartbeat was caused by shock from his sudden appearance, not because he was good-looking or anything.

He did look a little – oh, okay, a _lot_ better than she last remembered. He looked a lot healthier; his cheeks were less sunken and there were less dark circles under his eyes. His hair was no longer spiked up like he was trying to be a male version of Te'ijal and it helped his appearance by much. The black jacket he was currently wearing was definitely a major improvement from the ridiculous red garb he previously wore.

His smirk definitely did not cause her face to heat up.

And she most definitely did not enjoy it when he pressed his lips against hers.

* * *

_Somewhere in Almirk Jungle..._

"Was it good?" Nox asked.

Yemite nodded, licking her fingers.

"Evil is yummy!" the darkling chirped, then added rather glumly, "There aren't much evil to eat around here."

"Don't worry, I have more," Nox said. She pulled out another chunk of cursed chocolate from her bag and gave it to the darkling.

Nox watched as Yemite munched on chocolate happily. The darkling was surprisingly easy to distract and she was definitely not complaining.

"What are you up to now?"

"What does it look like?" Nox said. She didn't have to look to know that it was Uma. "I'm feeding Yemite."

"You don't have to go back in time to do that," Uma retorted, "What did you _really_ do?"

_What a nag_, Nox thought, rolling her eyes, as Uma sat down beside her. She made sure that Yemite was too busy eating before relating her explanation as quietly as possible.

"I thought the Oracle told us not to meddle anymore?" Uma asked when Nox was done with her story.

Nox scoffed. "Hey, she only said we're not allowed to mess with Mel. Nobody said anything about not meddling with _Gyendal_. What _he_ does is not my problem. Besides, if I didn't meddle I wouldn't have existed to meddle in the first place."

She suddenly noticed that the white-haired girl was carrying a large sack with her. Nox satred suspiciously at it.

"So what are _you_ doing here and why are you carrying around that sack?"

Uma wordlessly opened the sack and pulled out some slime. "Do you think demon slime is evil enough for Yemite to eat?" she asked casually.

Nox blinked, then a wide grin spread across her face. "We'll just have to try and see."

* * *

I am so bad at writing that too many things were left hanging.

I wanted to do a "think whatever you will" kind of thing, but in case some people are like me and reeaaaaallly likes everything being explained properly...

1) Gyendal's glowing because he's doing the "apparition trick" like Nox. In TLO magic spells doesn't seem to hurt Nox at all, so... yeah

2) That liquid Gyendal dumped on Mel is a love potion. Bitter and sweet because it contains wine, nectar and FLOWERS. Flowers are rather bitter to eat.

3) Yemite wasn't around because, as written there, she was being distracted by Uma and Nox.


End file.
